At 16:00 pm Beijing time on May 5, the Saudi Arabian Grand Slam women's singles 1/32 final started a "Chinese civil war", and the Chinese star Tian Zhixi, who is now playing for the South Korean team, and Zhu Chengzhu, the No. 2 main player of the Hong Kong team, fought against each other, and the high-skilled Tian Zhixi won 3-1 and entered the round of 32 as desired. Judging from the drawing table, if Tian Zhixi continues to pass the second round, he will face Sun Yingsha, the No. 1 national table tennis leader, in the third round.
Since Tian Zhixi was naturalized in South Korea, the road of table tennis has been very smooth, and his personal strength, team status and appearance have been improved at the same time. At the Incheon Championships at the end of March, Tian Zhixi single-handedly supported the Korean table tennis façade, defeated Misei Ito, and changed his prospects for Ba'o, if nothing else, Tian Zhixi will represent South Korea in the Olympic Games for the third time. Her left-handed horizontal and double-reverse play is very similar to that of Kasumi Ishikawa, the former sister of Japanese table tennis.
Zhu Chengzhu has now become the No. 2 main force in the Hong Kong women's team under Du Hoiqin, and she has steadily suppressed Li Haoqing and has basically locked in an Olympic singles spot. Zhu Chengzhu has a tenacious style of competition, is very capable of fighting, has a strong ability to bite closely, and has the tenacity of indomitable and unbending. However, from the perspective of ball skills, Zhu Chengzhu's strength is relatively insufficient, and she also lacks a distinctive killing board, and it is difficult for her to get the ideal results in this Grand Slam.
In the first game of the game, Zhu Chengzhu started smoothly and took a 3-0 lead, Tian Zhixi played very conservatively in this game, and the consciousness of launching first was relatively weak, Zhu Chengzhu attacked aggressively, and gradually widened the point difference, 11-4, Zhu Chengzhu quickly won the first game.
In the second game, Tian Zhixi still adopted a preemptive strategy, she closely guarded against Zhu Chengzhu's attack, and frequently forced Zhu Chengzhu's mistakes with tricky return points, leading all the way at the beginning. Zhu Chengzhu caught up in the middle game, and the two sides entered the back 6-6. At the end of the game, Tian Zhixi continued to catch the ball and was slapped by Zhu Chengzhu, but she was lucky to get the net on the key points. 14-12, Tian Zhixi pulled back a game, and the two sides fought 1-1.
In the crucial third game, both sides were very careful to stabilize the quality of the board, and no one dared to fill the offensive posture. Tian Zhixi took the lead after the middle game, Zhu Chengzhu couldn't catch up, 11-9, Tian Zhixi took the next city and overtook Dafen 2-1.
In the fourth game, Tian Zhixi gave full play to the advantage of the backhand position, quickly completed the catch-up after falling behind at the beginning, and finally won the game 11-8, Oita 3-1, and successfully advanced to the top 32 of women's singles.
Tian Zhixi has a very high reputation in the hearts of Chinese fans, although she is in South Korea, she has not forgotten her roots, and she is very friendly to China in all circumstances. I hope that Tian Zhixi can pass the second round, and then have a good exchange with Sun Yingsha in the third round, which will definitely promote her to further improve herself.
At the same time in Tian Zhixi's match, Shen Yubin, the first sister of the Korean table tennis women's team, also made her Saudi Grand Slam debut, defeating the Spanish team's Chinese player Zhang Xuan 3-0 and successfully advanced to the second round.